I think a lot of opportunities for collaboration within organizations are missed because not enough time is available and/or dedicated to discussing what we are working on and thinking about. After infrequent opportunites to hear about the work of others, Its common to hear statements like: "wow, I had no idea that was what your team was doing, thanks. There are probably ways we can work together on this." So how do organizations (and inter-organizational collaborations or coaltiions for that matter) create spaes and structures for ongoing sharing of what they are working on or thinking about?

This post talks about how the Monitor Institute goes about knowledge management and learning. They use a weekly email to ask these questions:

1. What have you been working on this week?
2. What question has been top of mind for you this week?
3. How have you been learning or sharing learning this week?
4. What are you most grateful for this week?

and one staff member compiles the answers and sends it back. They decided email was the preferred way to do it in their organization, but I could imagine several other possible ways to encourage this type of sharing and learning from each other - twitter, org website "status" message, facebook status, staff meeting check ins, etc. The post also mentions a web-based system called Yammer that is designed for this purpose. What would work in your organization?